UI and UX, What is the difference? Wait, What will I tell if my client ask me this question?

A very common question people ask when you say UX and UI, “What is the difference?” They both have “U” in common, If there is a difference, what is it? And a lot more, right?
Ok, cool!

Let’s first ask Google and WiKipedia as we always do, lol.

User experience design (UX, UXD, UED or XD) is the process of enhancing user satisfaction with a product by improving the usability, accessibility, and pleasure provided in the interaction with the product. User experience design encompasses traditional human–computer interaction (HCI) design, and extends it by addressing all aspects of a product or service as perceived by users.

User interface design (UI) or user interface engineering is the design of user interfaces for machines and software, such as computers, home appliances, mobile devices, and other electronic devices, with the focus on maximizing usability and the user experience. The goal of user interface design is to make the user's interaction as simple and efficient as possible, in terms of accomplishing user goals (user-centered design).

Well, this is what I got when I searched about UX and UI, maybe this can help us with our assignments back in college and get some grade points. But in no way this is going to help you deal with your clients. You don’t trust me? Just give it a try and see what happens next.

It’s more important that we first understand and then explain others. I will explain what I personally understood about UX and UI design.

The difference between UI and UX

To me, User experience or UX is simply the experience of the user with a product, which can be an app, website, a play toy, a cup of coffee, anything and everything. The best the product works, the best is it’s experience as well.

Now User Interface Design or UI in short is something to do will the look and feel of the product. Simply it is the actual interaction of the user with a product.

A Journey from UI to UX

UI is like Brand centric and UX is User centric. UI deals mostly with the appearance of what’s already been thought through during the UX design phase.

Imagine yourself in a waterfall, think of the snow capped mountain, the white smoke, water flow, melt water drops as the UI of the place. Now just jump into the water and this is the UX. It is very clear that UX is literally everything that has impact on your overall experience as a user of “something.”

Maybe now it’s time for you to take a break and go to a waterfalls and find the difference which will help you to explain UI and UX in a much better way to your clients.

Problem & Solution - UX and UI

Problem is the start for UX, the problem is something which the user wants to solve and he is trying all possible way to solve it.

Now solving a user problem will be very difficult if you don’t understand their problem. UX is high-level thinking about how I can get the user to where they need to be.

When approximately 80% of the UX part is done, UI is ready to play the role, well the term itself is often used interchangeably for web design, graphic design, interaction design, and front-end design, even.

Under the cover, UX is a data-driven field. One can never make a UX decision on his or her intuition. There is a lot of research, testing and experiments done for a prolonged period of time to find out the challenges in the design process. One should also think out of the design aspects which includes psychology, marketing, strategic business planning, product design.

Taking everything into account, UX is like a road map or a blue print of the product, and through UI you can build the same.